Salem Labor Leader To Travel to Colombia And Venezuela

Rosalie Pedroza is Statewide Secretary of the Department of Human Services Local Union of SEIU Local 503 in Orgon. She has been a member of the union since 1987. In November Rosalie will be part of a labor delegation going from Oregon to Colombia and Venezuela. The ten-person rank-and-file delegation will be made up of members of the ILWU, AFSCME, Laborers and Carpenters. The trip will last eleven days. Sponsors of the trip include Portland-area Latin American solidarity groups, Global Exchange and the US Labor Education in the Americas Project.

The trip is significant for many reasons. In the past it has been difficult for solidarity activists to put together labor delegations, and especially delegations of rank-and-file union activists. The AFL-CIO has in the past actively discouraged worker-to-worker contact across borders and cross-border labor activism. In this case, however, it was not difficult to recruit members of the delegation. Rosalie sees her participation as a logical follow-up to having attended the historic Seattle protests and then having gone on a solidarity delegation to Chiapas. SEIU Local 503 is paying most of her expenses.

I asked Rosalie why she is taking part in the delegation to Colombia and Venezuela. She answered, "The door opened. This is where my heart is. I'm going to be a sponge absorbing everything there. We don't get much news from there here in the US. I didn't know or understand the Zapatistas until I went to Chiapas. I'd like to find out in Venezuela what its like to have a government which supports working people." She also told me that she found the video "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" inspiring.

Rosalie and I talked about how the trip may or may not tie into her union work. Rosalie said that she hopes that sharing her experiences when she returns to the US will help her be more receptive to the issues union members bring to her. "When you're able to tell stories from there it should open peoples eyes. There is no other way to do it. Telling real stories from there puts Colombia and Venezuela on peoples radar screens," Rosalie said. "I want the Colombian government and the people in Colombia and Venezuela to know that the whole world is watching. I'm hoping that this trip makes me a more effective union leader."

Co-workers are excited about Rosalie's trip, although the "devil speech" by President Hugo Chavez brought mixed reactions at work. Rosalie used photographs she took in Chiapas to raise money for the state food drive last year. She is already planning a series of presentations when she returns from Colombia and Venezuela.

Rosalie spent last New Years Eve with the Zapatistas and watched a Zapatista-led community forum take place. I asked her if she saw or learned anything there which she has found useful or applicable to her work in Local 503. Rosalie told me that the Zapatistas train people to provide healthcare and also provide basic educational opportunities. These trained people must then take their knowledge to the villages. She connected this organizing method to the SEIU Local 503 campaign to organize homecare workers in Oregon. She believes that the union should also train volunteers to train and equip others with needed knowledge.

We spoke briefly about the connections between her trip to Chiapas, her coming trip to Columbia and Venezuela and the struggles of undocumented workers which have gained so much attention here in Oregon. Rosalie believes that government repression and the free trade agreements have created connections between these efforts. She is active in several anti-free trade labor efforts and worked for a union resolution supporting immigrant rights. The main points of that resoluion were adopted at her union's recent General Council.

Rosalie believes that the proposed Peru free trade agreement may be a significant battle about to erupt. She has been pressuring local Democrats to take a strong stand on labor and trade issues, healthcare and opposition to the war. She believes that workers "can get their hands around stopping trade agreements."

Rosalie first heard about NAFTA from the AFL-CIO. She then participated in the Seattle protests. After that she went to the Cancun protests in 2001 and to Chiapas last year. "This trip to Colombia andVenezuela is about opening minds," she said.